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Before You Begin

The System FMEA (SFMEA) is the highest tier of failure mode analysis in the Aerospace Safety Solution. Each row links a customerRequirement to a failureMode work item. You cannot create new customer requirements from within the risksheet — requirements must already exist in the Requirements space.

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Steps

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1. Open the System SFMEA Document

Navigate to Risks in the sidebar, then open the SFMEA document for your system element (for example, Flight Control Computer (FCC) — System SFMEA). The risksheet opens in Default view, which shows the core columns for initial failure mode entry.

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2. Switch to the “No Up/Down Risks” View

For initial identification work, select the No Up/Down Risks view from the view selector. This hides upstream and downstream traceability columns so you can focus on entering failure mode descriptions without distraction.
The 9 guided views step you through the FMEA workflow: identification → ranking → mitigation → verification. Start with No Up/Down Risks, then progress to Initial Risk Ranking once all failure modes are entered.

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3. Add a Failure Mode Row

Click Add Row or use the risksheet insert action. The new row creates a failureMode work item linked to an Item (customer requirement). Select the Item from the customer requirement picker. The risksheet does not allow creating new customer requirements inline (canCreate: false) — if the requirement is missing, add it in the Requirements space first.

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4. Fill in the Failure Identification Fields

For each row, complete the following fields:
FieldDescriptionNotes
failureModeWhat the requirement fails to doRequired — keep it concise and system-level
effectOfFailureConsequence at the aircraft or mission levelDefaults to Undetermined — update before review
causeOfFailureRoot cause or failure mechanismCan reference subsystem inputs
cognitionErrorHuman factors — cognitive error contributionOptional; used in MIL-STD-882E analyses
perceptionErrorHuman factors — perception error contributionOptional
The risksheet auto-generates a narrative description using the formula: 
ON REQUIREMENT: <customerRequirement_title>  FAILURE MODE: <failureMode>  CAUSE: <causeOfFailure>
This auto-generated text appears in risk reports and the compliance matrix.

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5. Set Pre-Mitigation Severity

Set the fmSeverity field using the failureModeSeverity enum. Severity reflects the worst-case effect of the failure at the system boundary.
Both premitigationFMOccurrence and postmitigationFMOccurrence default to 0. A zero occurrence value means the RPN will calculate as zero, which can make the risk appear lower than it is. Always populate occurrence before completing the initial ranking view.

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6. Score Occurrence and Detection

In the Initial Risk Ranking view, fill in the pre-mitigation scoring fields:
  • premitigationFMOccurrence — likelihood of this failure occurring (enum: fmOccurrence)
  • premitigationDetection — ability to detect the failure before effect (enum: detection)
The risksheet calculates premitigationRPN automatically: 
premitigationRPN = fmSeverity × premitigationFMOccurrence × premitigationDetection
RPN color coding gives an instant risk scan: diagram The row header is colored by the post-mitigation RPN value, giving an immediate audit of residual risk across the entire document. Once subsystem SFMEAs exist, use the Link Downstream DFMEA view to connect subsystem failure modes to their system-level parent via the causes backlink role. This establishes vertical traceability from system requirements down through the design decomposition.
The downstream linking workflow requires subsystem SFMEA documents to be created first. The causes link is populated from the subsystem document — not entered directly in the System SFMEA row. Confirm the exact linking procedure in your running Polarion instance.

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Verification

You should now see:
  • Each customer requirement row has at least one failureMode row beneath it
  • The auto-generated risk description populates with requirement title, failure mode, and cause text
  • Pre-mitigation RPN calculates and the row header shows a color-coded risk level
  • The Risk Summary view shows all failure modes ranked by RPN

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See Also

Code: .polarion/nextedy/models/rtm.yaml (0.67) · modules/RiskTemplates/DFMEATemplate/attachments/risksheet.json (0.62) · modules/Risks/COMPLIANCE-001/module.xml, modules/Risks/MIL-STD-882E-HTS-001/module.xml, modules/Risks/SEC-THREAT-001/module.xml, modules/Risks/SFMEA-SUB-001/module.xml, modules/Risks/SFMEA-SUB-002/module.xml, modules/Risks/SFMEA-SUB-003/module.xml (0.59) · modules/RiskTemplates/SubSystem-FMEATemplate/attachments/risksheet.json (0.56) · modules/RiskTemplates/System-FMEATemplate/attachments/risksheet.json (0.56) · .polarion/nextedy/sheet-configurations/MIL-STD-882E Hazard Tracking Log.yaml (0.54) · .polarion/tracker/fields/failureMode-custom-fields.xml (0.52) · modules/RiskTemplates/SSATemplate/attachments/risksheet.json (0.51) · .polarion/nextedy/sheet-configurations/DO-160G Environmental Qualification.yaml, Component RTM.yaml, Configuration Index.yaml, Design Verification Sheet.yaml, Interface Control Matrix.yaml, Problem Report Tracker.yaml, Process Steps.yaml, Review Action Item Tracker.yaml, SOI Stage Gate Dashboard.yaml, Use Steps Specification.yaml, User Need Validation Sheet.yaml, characteristics.yaml, component-characteristics.yaml, customer-requirements.yaml, design-requirements.yaml, subsystem-functions.yaml, subsystem-verification.yaml, system-elements.yaml, test-verification.yaml (0.51) · .polarion/tracker/fields/workitem-type-enum.xml (0.51)